You're From The Future
by Reading is my Element
Summary: Demigods and 12 Olympians on Olympus, reading the Percy Jackson. Will the gods be able to handle seeing their children or will it be too much? What secrets will be revealed? Set in Heroes of Olympus, so there will be spoilers. This is my first I hope you will like.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, I'm Reading is my Element. This is my first fan fiction so I decide to do a characters read the books. I saw many different stories like this and thought I should do one of my own. So here it is….**

** Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus**

**Poseidon pov**

The other Olympians were arguing like we did every Summer Solstice. Hera yelling at Zeus for cheating, and Zeus yelling at Hades for killing Thalia. Ares and Hephaestus were arguing over Aphrodite and she didn't really seem to care**. **Dionysus was looking at a wine magazine, Hermes was out delivering a package and Artemis and Apollo were arguing about flirting with the hunters. While Owl Head over here is yelling in my ear for something.

"Enough!" Zeus shouted stand up, holding out his arms to silence everyone. "We are gods not children, let's have one discussion without-"

"I have package!" Hermes announced the moment he walked into the room. He looked around the room to see Zeus standing with an annoyed look on his face. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," Zeus said "what's in the package?"

Hermes walked over to Zeus and showed him the package. "BOOKS! YOU STOPPED A SUMMER SOLSTICE FOR A BUNCH OF BOOKS!"

"There's a letter from the fates telling us that we have to read it." Hermes explained giving the note to Zeus.

_Dear Olympians,_

_We have sent you 10 books, _

_Along with some friends,_

_There will be more!_

_Love the Fates_

"What does that mean?" Zeus asked when a bright light suddenly filled the room. 5 kids were face down on our solid gold table. Luckily Apollo put mattresses under them before they fell so none of them were hurt.

"Who are you?" I demanded

A girl with black clothing bowed to Artemis and Zeus, who looked so confused. "Why have you summand us father?" she asked

"Have no idea who you are." Zeus said staring her down.

"I'm Thalia your daughter…"

"But you're a tree!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah well that changed, obviously" She said, muttering the last part so none of the others heard but I did "A boy saved me."

A girl with blonde hair, and grey eyes, stepped forward; she looked horrible, like she hadn't sleep in days, or even months. She had slight bags under her eyes. Her clothes were a little wrinkled. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." She said. Her voice slightly cracked when she talked but still everything about her radiated power. With or without her horrible condition she seemed like a leader.

A pale, short boy in all black bowed to the gods and said "Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades."

Zeus angrily glared at Hades, and then stood and pointed his lightning bolt at Nico. "You tried to kill my daughter, and I already told you to kill him and his sister, you have disobeyed my orders. For that I will do it myself!"

Hades stood up; he looked like he would murder Zeus. I knew I had to stop it before it turned into a full on war. Zeus was about to fire his lightning bolt, and Hades was about to tackle him.

"Stop!" I yelled "Zeus your child is here and you can't blame Hades for not wanting to kill his own son."

"Shut up, Poseidon, he didn't disobey your orders. I told him to kill _Nico _and here he is."

"Dad stop! Nico is here and you need to get over that. Nico does some things in the future that help a lot of people, and he could save many more if you don't kill him." Thalia said. "Besides there are still some people who need to introduce themselves."

"Fine but if I even see the need to kill him, he's dead!" Zeus and Hades returned to their thrones.

A Native American girl stepped forward and bowed "I'm Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite."

Aphrodite looked up from her mirror and smiled. She seemed a little surprised but happy. Piper wasn't the exact definition of a daughter of Aphrodite. But she was still beautiful, for a demigod.

A elf looking boy stepped forward "I'm Super Bad Boy Supreme, The Amazing Ultra Son of Hephaestus and perfectly-"

"Just say your name!" Thalia and Piper yelled together

"Leo Valdez!"

"Finally," A boy with blonde hair and sky blue eyes stepped forward "I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

All of the gods, including me, were switching forms. Neptune tried to take over but I kept resisting. My mind almost slipped over into Roman form. The gods were practically screaming now, the kids faces were full of confusion written, except Annabeth.

After a couple of minutes I and the rest of the gods had calmed down. Zeus was the first one to speak, "Let's just start reading before something like this happens again, please."

"Who wants to read?" I asked popping up chairs for them to sit on them.

"I will." Piper said

And the reading began….

**Well let me know if you love it. I would love it if you reviewed and favorite it, and follow it. Thank You!**

**Reading Is My Element**


	2. Killing Pre Algebra Teachers

** Here's the second chapter in my story. Hope you like it. Review, Favorite and Follow when you're done!**

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians/ Heroes of Olympus!**

* * *

**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher **Piper read

** Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"It really is horrible to be a half blood, fighting monsters isn't as cool as it sounds." Thalia said. The rest of the demigod nodded and the gods stared at their kids realizing it was true.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

**Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Wow, Kelp Head is on a roll. Who knew he could get so many things right at a time?" Thalia said

Annabeth looked liked she was about to cry but she answered "He's not that dumb."

Thalia looked at her "He still can't understand the Greek Alphabet" Annabeth was about to retort but Piper kept reading.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

**__**_'Zoe'_ Thalia thought

_'Luke' _Annabeth thought

_'Bianca' _Nico thought

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"How can monsters sense demigods?" Piper asked, when no one answered she continued.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"No it's Kelp Head." Thalia said

"No it's Coral Breath" Nico said

"No it's Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said "Or Peter Johnson."

"What's with all the nicknames?" Leo asked

"We don't even know." Nico said

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"All demigods are." Hera growled, she hated being in the same room with these horrible, idiotic demigods. I can definitely tell you the feeling is neutral.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See even he admits it!" Hera yelled. No one cared or bothered to answer, the demigods really hate her.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"That sounds so interesting." Athena said

"No it sounds like torture. He should be outside playing not learning, who learns at school?" Apollo teased

"Shut up, Sun Boy." Artemis said annoyed.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"He agrees."

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner,**

**Our Latin teacher was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons,** **so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"Please trouble is his middle name." Annabeth snorted.

**Boy was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

Everyone bursted out laughing, Annabeth already knew but it was still hilarious.

"This kid is amazing!" Apollo laughed.

"This one has to be mine!" Hermes said in between laughs

Poseidon just rolled his eyes and snorted.

** And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Aw, I wanted him to continue." Hermes whined

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewe that's gross." Aphrodite and Piper squealed

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Wouldn't Grover love this?" Nico said with a smile.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Boys." Artemis and Thalia said together. Thalia realized she never told Artemis she was her lieutenant.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension. If anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it, I need more action!" Ares yelled

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"In your hair?" Piper asked

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

"Is that-"Nico started

"Yes, don't spoil anything for them." Annabeth interrupted, leaving everyone else confused.

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoed galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer than that." The Gods said

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, steel, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

"He has a Harley riding, evil eye glaring, leather wearing math teacher?" Leo asked "Does that sound weird to anyone else."

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Honey?" Everyone said, expect for Nico and Hades, who hear it all the time.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the steel,** **and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did." Annabeth said

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**The older gods shivered. **

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"God, I am King of the Gods!" Zeus screamed.

"Calm down, he will correct him. It's Chiron." Athena said, after she figured out who he was.

**And—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"See."**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

Poseidon, Apollo, Hermes laughed.

"Years of fighting summarized into a couple sentence." Poseidon said in between laughs

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. **

**"Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"He does push us hard, but he has to. We wouldn't be here if he didn't." Jason said. Thalia noticed that Jason hasn't really said anything since they got there. She was going to ask him later.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Best teacher ever!" Leo said

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"I hate dyslexia." All the demigods said together

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the steel, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

** We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchable crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,**

"That sounds like the Stolls Brothers." Nico said

**and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Teachers never see things like that." Piper said

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. **

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

Athena smiled, she knew it.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"Poseidon!" Zeus yelled "Is Percy you're son?"

"Yes, and if you hurt him you're going to have more problems than war on your hands." Poseidon threatened.

"Am I the only one who didn't break the oath?" Hades asked angrily

"What are you talking about your child is there too!" Poseidon said still glaring at Zeus.

"I put him in the Lotus Casino; he was born before the oath." Hades explained but not calming down at all.

"Poseidon, you still broke the oath, for that I don't care if you start a war. I will win, you're son will die and it won't be quick." Zeus promised

"I will kill your children if you do don't test me, _brother_" Poseidon practically spat the word.

"Please let's think this through; Percy is probably important in the future, am I right?" Athena asked

Annabeth, Thalia and Nico nodded

"See, we can't kill him. Even if he were Barnacle Beard's son." Athena said trying to reason.

The boys stopped fighting but that didn't stop them from glaring at one another.

"Why did stop them Athena, things were getting intersecting" Dionysus whined, she just glared at him.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishment." Hermes shook his head.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No dip." Nico and Thalia said

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Bet mine is scarier; I would give this kid a run for his money." Ares laughed

Annabeth, felt like crying. She missed Percy and reading wasn't helping, but she still smirked at Ares' comment.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

Nico shivered "I hate that stare."

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

Athena's eyes wided, this is going to end badly.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on,** **but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize me...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

By now everyone had realized this was a monster but had no idea who. But Athena, Annabeth, Hades and Nico knew and were hoping no one else did.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

Apollo and Hermes laughed

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

By now they fallen off their thrones.

"How could he not of read Tom Sawyer, how can you demigods put up with him?" Athena asked petrified

"I wonder how his girlfriend puts up with him." Aphrodite squealed

The future demigods smiled and Annabeth blushed but none of the gods noticed.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"Hades you sent a fury after my son?" Poseidon yelled he got up and chocked Hades. Hades tried to pry him off but he was to strong. It took 4 gods to get Poseidon off of Hades.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"Wonderful." Poseidon muttered

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

Poseidon breathed a sigh of relief.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

Then started to hyperventilate.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Really cause what would be natural is running away screaming." Leo teased

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

"**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"No only the Hecate cabin can give you those." Leo smiled. Gods were confused, Hecate Cabin?

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

"The mist is wonderful thing isn't it guys." Apollo dreamily said

Artemis rolled her eyes and hit him in the back of the head.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"No, of course not he ate so magical mushrooms" Leo said, some laughed, most didn't.

An eerie silence filled the air. Zeus opened his mouth to break it but before he could, a bright light filled the room.

* * *

**That is the longest thing I have ever done, hopefully I'll keep doing it. You know I really hate spell check. Thalia, Annabeth and Nico aren't in the dictionary but I know there right. Anyway, who is the next person to join? Leave a review let me know, who you want. Thanks to the people who reviewed, followed and favorite this. Check out my other story if you're a Divergent fan. Also I might not post a chapter next week, House of Hades is coming out in 3 days.**

**Review**

**Follow **

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**Reading Is My Element**

**Peace! :)**


	3. Author's Note

** Hello, how do you like the story? Thanks to all the people who reviewed, followed and favorite this story. There is only one problem; I don't know who to put into the story next. I put up a poll on my profile that I want you guys to check out. I know you were hoping for a chapter but I couldn't decide who to put in. If you do I could get it up by the weekend, maybe. Please check out the poll, or review who you want next. **

**Bye!**

**Reading Is My Element**


	4. Knitting The Socks Of Death

**Hey guys, I have a new chapter for you. I had some computer problems, but I think it's fixed.**

**I hope you guys like the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus if I did the books would not come a year at a time.**

* * *

The bright light turned down, and three figures were standing there. There stood Sally, Paul and Percy where the bright lights once were.

Percy looked around and saw his mom and some dude, who was he? Sally just stared at her son, and then she hugged him really hard. Annabeth just sat in her seat, Thalia looked at her.

"Why are you sitting there? Percy is here and you're just sitting there."

"Look at him, its Percy but 12 year old Percy."

Thalia looked at Percy who was still in Sally's arms. He was 12 years old! Thalia looked at Annabeth she looked like she was going to cry. Thalia patted her friend on the back trying to comfort her.

The gods had a different reaction; they were shocked, angry, or bored. Ares, Hermes, Apollo, and Hephaestus were totally bored. The Big Three and Athena were angry, the rest of them were just shocked.

Sally let go of Percy, she didn't care if he was 12, and he was still her son. Paul knew that Percy didn't know who he was, so he just stayed back.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Zeus yelled at the new comers.

Sally introduced herself, "I'm Sally Blois, mother of Percy Jackson."

Poseidon had a slight sad look it his eyes, Sally had moved on.

Paul stepped forward and introduced himself, "I'm Paul Blofis, stepdad of Percy Jackson."

Percy introduced himself, "I'm Percy Jackson." He said more like a question then a statement.

"Let's start reading." Athena said

"Reading?" Percy asked

"We are reading about you." Annabeth explained

"That's not creepy at all."

Annabeth explained what had happened, how they got here, what year it is, "Who wants to read next?"

"What," Percy said "I don't even know any of your guy's names."

Nico, Thalia, Piper, Leo, Jason and Annabeth introduced themselves. But when Annabeth introduced herself Percy looked up and smile.

"I know you, you and I were on a quest before I got put here."

Annabeth smiled, he still knew her.

"I'll read." Sally said

**Three Old Ladies Knit of Socks of Death **Sally read

Poseidon sighed this is going to kill him.

** I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/ seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

"Sounds like the Stolls Brothers." Nico laughed, and the demigods nodded.

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr- a perky blond woman whom I'd never seem in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip- has been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. **

** Every so often would I spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see them trip them up, but they would just stare at me like I was a complete psycho. **

"I hated that, a teacher asked me if I needed professional help." Percy said

** It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed. **

** Almost. **

"It was Grover, wasn't it?" Thalia asked

"Yep." Percy answered

** But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claimed she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

** Something was going on. Something ****_had _****happened at the museum.**

"Nothing happened at the museum, you just ate some magical mushrooms." Leo teased

"You know that explains so much." Percy responded

** I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would make me wake up in a cold sweat. **

The demigods all shuddered.

** The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small plane had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

The gods just rolled their eyes, "What are you guys fight about now?"

Percy was freaking out, Zeus in his time freaked out like a baby who lost his toy. How was he going to react now?

** I started to feel cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"You need to study harder Percy." Athena said

"And eat more cereal." Demeter added

** Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling test, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

"I still have no idea what is means." Percy laughed, along with everyone else.

Annabeth and Athena laughed, "It means an alcoholic."

** I wasn't sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

** The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

** Fine, I told myself. Just fine. **

** I was homesick. **

** I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment**

"Mommy's boy." Ares muttered

** on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Paul raised an eyebrow, he knew about smelly Gabe but he never knew how much Percy hated him.

** And yet…. there were things I'd miss Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of the pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive the year without me. **

** I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.  
**The demigods smiled, he always had faith in them.

** As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. **

** The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the ****_Cambridge's Guide to Greek Mythology _****across my dorm room.**

_Seaweed Brain _Annabeth thought

"Why would you throw a book?" Athena asked shocked anyone could do that with a book.

Percy shrugged.

** Words had started to swim off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"Looks like you need a tutor, Kelp Head." Thalia teased Percy.

** I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. **

** I remembered Mr., Brunner's serious expression, his thousands-year-old eyes. ****_I will only accept the best from you, Percy Jackson. _**

******I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. **

"Well you're learning." Athena said

** I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried. **

"That's the Percy we know and love." Nico smirked.

Percy just looked at him, it was a little awkward. Hearing him talk about himself in a way, like they were friends even though he didn't know Nico.

** I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. **

** I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said ". . . . . worried about Percy, sir."**

** I froze.**

** I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"You are sure about that Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked

**But I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. I inched closer. **

** ". . . . . . Alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean a Kindly one in the ****_school_****! Now that we know for sure, and ****_they_**** know too-"**

** "We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said "We need the boy to mature more."**

** "But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"**

** "Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

** "Sir, he saw her. . . ."**

** "His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

** "Sir, I. . . . . I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

** "You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"I kind of would have of loved for them to just tell me now." Percy mumbled

** The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"You need to work on your spying skills." Hermes noticed, "I'll give you lessons."

Sally and Poseidon raised an eyebrow together.

** Mr. Brunner went silent.**

** My heart hammered, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

** A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. **

** A few seconds later I heard a slow ****_clop-clop-clop, _****like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

** A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. **

** Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he muttered "My nerves haven't been right since the summer solstice."**

** "Mine neither," Grover said "But I could have sworn . . . . ."**

** "Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

** "Don't remind me."**

** The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. **

** I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. **

** Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. **

** Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he had been there all night.**

** "Hey," he said, bleary eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

** I didn't answer.**

** "You look awful." He frowned "Is everything okay?"**

** "Just . . . . . tired."**

** I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"That won't help; Grover can read your emotions." Annabeth explains

"I know that now Wise Girl." Percy rolled his eyes.

Annabeth smiled slightly, he never changed.

** I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

** But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

** The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

** For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

** "Percy," he said "Don't discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's . . . it's for the best."**

Paul frowned at that, he didn't make it sound sincere.

** His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

** I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

** "I mean . . . "Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

** My eyes stung.**

** Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. **

** "Right," I said trembling**

** "No, no," Mr. Brunner said "Oh confound it all. What I'm trying to say . . . you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

** "Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me." **

** "Percy-"**

** But I was already gone.**

Paul was still frowning.

** On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

** The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Sure a family of a of nobodies." Zeus snorted

** They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

** What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazines subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

** "Oh," one of them said."That's cool"**

** They went back to their conversation like I never existed. **

"I hate kids like that." Piper said.

**The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He booked a ticket to Manhattan in the same Greyhound as I had. There we were, together again, headed into the city. **

** During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers, it occurred to me he always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. **

** Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

** I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"  
**"Well you know how to freak a guy out." Jason said

** Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what so you mean?"**

** I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

** Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

** "Oh . . . not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

** He winced. "Look Percy . . . I was worried for you, see I mean hallucinating about demon math teachers . . ."**

** "Grover-"**

** "And telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and . . ."**

"Dang, he sucks at lying." Apollo notices

** "Grover, you're a really bad liar."**

** His ears turned pink.**

** From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

** The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, **

"Dionysus, why are they in a fancy script if they are dyslexic?" Artemis asked.

"It makes it more fun to watch." He answers.

**but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood _**

**_Keeper _**

**_Half Blood Hill_**

**_Long Island, New York_**

**_(800)009-0009_**

** "What's Half-"**

** "Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um . . . summer address."**

** My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy. **

** "Okay," I said glumly "You want me to visit you at your mansion."**

** He nodded "Or . . . or if you need me."**

** "Why would I need you?"**

"Percy, why did you ask that?" Sally yelled, "He wanted to help you."

"It came out harsher then I wanted too." Percy said

** It came out harsher than I wanted it too.**

** Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

** I stared at him.**

** All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended ****_me._**

Athena raised her eyebrow; he could have a loyalty problem

** "Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

** There was a loud grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

** After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

** We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice of you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing, but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat was an old fashioned fruit stand. **

Annabeth and Athena gasped.

"What?" Poseidon asked worried

"You'll see."

Annabeth looked like she was going to cry.

** The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blooded cherries and apple, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw foot tub of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I have ever seen.**

Everyone by now had got who they are. Everyone who knew Percy was freaking out.

** I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. **

** The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Sally felt horrible, she just saw her boy and now the Fates say he's going to die.

** I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

** "Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

** "Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

** "Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny." Everyone said

** The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath. **

** "We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

** "What?" I said "its a thousand degrees in there."**

** "Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

** Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear the ****_snip_**** across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

** At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

** The passengers cheered. **

** "Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

** Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

** Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

** "Grover?"**

** "Yeah?"**

** "What are you not telling me?"**

"Lots of things." Sally and Annabeth said together.

** He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

** "You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

** His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

** "The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." **

** He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

** He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

** "Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

** "This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want to be like the last time."**

** "What last time?"**

** "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Remind me to talk to Grover that it wasn't his fault." Thalia told Annabeth, she nodded.

** "Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

** "Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

** This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promise he could.**

** "Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. **

** No answer.**

** "Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

** He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking out the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin. **

"I think tulips would be nice for you." Leo teased

Everyone just laughed, but the tense atmosphere was not forgotten.

"We shall take a break after this chapter, we need to finish are meeting that got interrupted." Zeus declared.

Everyone agreed and began to read.

* * *

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	5. Grover Lost His Pants

_**Hey guys! Sorry, I have been a little MIA and whatever. I decided to post a chapter, once every two weeks. Tell me what you guys think of that. I just don't have time to post every week. Anyway, I have thought of writing some Mortal Instruments one-shots in between this story, so let me know what you think of that also! **_

_**I do not own Percy Jackson!**_

"Who wants to read next?" Athena asked

"I will." Percy said.

Sally gave the books to her son.

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants ** Percy said.

"That's not weird at all." Leo said

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal. **

"Percy!" Sally, Paul, Poseidon and Annabeth yelled.

"Sorry, he was freaking me out." He replied.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be the sixth grade?"**

"Ok, that would freak me out too." Thalia shrugged.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, and then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the bus driver.**

Leo smiled he was going to drive Percy crazy with prank mail. Piper saw his smile and hit him, "Stop thinking whatever you're thinking right now." She whispered.

**A word about my mother before you meet her. **

"Awesome." Percy said

"Amazing." Annabeth added.

"Magnificent." Thalia added.

"Perfect." Paul added.

"Thanks guys." Sally appreciated.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no family, no money, and no diploma. **

'_Wow she deserves a good husband' _Hera thought.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe a bare trace of his smile. My mom does not like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. **

**See they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. **

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

'_Smart Lady' _Athena thought

"That was a smart thing to do." Athena complimented Sally.

**She worked odd jobs, took late night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice for the first thirty seconds we knew him, and then he showed his colors as a world class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. **

Percy and Sally frowned, they really hated smelly Gabe.

**Between the two of us, we made her life pretty hard. The Smelly Gabe treated her; the way he and I got along . . . well, when I came home is a good example. **

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. **

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So you're home."**

"**Where's is my mom?"**

"**Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

Sally looked mortified, "How offended did he do this?"

"He only did it twice," Percy lied "This time and one before it."

Sally nodded, believing him, but she a little weary.

However Annabeth didn't believe him. She had known Percy for a long time and knew when he was lying even now. She noticed he seemed a little nervous, why?

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How's your life been the six months?**_

"Of course not." Percy rolled his eyes.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tusk less walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronic Mega-Mart on Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling fund. He called our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom he would punch my lights out.**

Everyone gasped.

"Did he ever hit you?" Annabeth asked

"Can we not talk about it?" Percy asked uncomfortable.

"Percy answer her now." Sally demanded

"No, he didn't." Percy sighed.

No one believed him.

"Percy, please."

"Mom, he didn't do anything." Percy ignored the questioning and sorry looks he got, and continued reading.

"**I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should of covered up everything else. **

"**You took a taxi from the bus station, he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"He wasn't as bad as the rest of them." Percy said to his mom. She nodded still thinking about what Gabe did to Percy.

"**Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"**Fine," I said. I dug a wad of cash out of my pocket and threw it on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"**You're report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty."**

**I slammed the door to my room, which wasn't really my room. During the school months, it was Gabe's "study". He didn't study anything but old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff into the closet, leaving his muddy boots on the windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Sorry, I tried to clean it but he kept making it dirty." Sally apologized.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmare about Ms. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. **

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic- how he made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-someone-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

"You should have of told your mom." Jason said

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. My mother can make me feel good just by walking by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as warm as a quilt. She's got a few grey streaks mixed with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looked at me, it's like she's seeing all the good about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind thing to anyone, not even me or Gabe. **

"Best mom ever!" Leo exclaimed.

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red- white-and- blue Sweet on America Uniform smelled like chocolate. Licorice and other stuff she sold at the candy store in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

The demigods were a little jealous.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demeaned to know everything I hadn't put in my letter. She didn't mention anything about me getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth. **

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not some jerk like Gabe. **

"Or a guy like you, Paul." Percy said "I'm happy you're married to my mom."

**For her sake, I tried to make my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I stared choking up, thing about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum . . . **

"**What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets."Did something scare you?" **

"**No, Mom."**

"You should have told me." Sally said.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursued her lips. She knew I holding back, but she didn't push me.**

"**I have a surprise for you," she said "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened."Montauk?" **

"**Three nights-same cabin."**

"**When?"**

**She smiled "As soon as I get changed." **

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Poseidon growled, he wanted to kill him**.**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally. Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here. **

"**I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"**I knew it," I muttered "He won't let us go."**

"**Of course he will," my mother said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven layered bean dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "This money for the trip . . . it comes out of your clothes budget ,right?"**

"How could he that jerk?" Aphrodite yelled.

"Relax baby." Ares said, his ears hurt.

"**Yes, honey," my mom said.**

"**And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

"**We'll be careful." **

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip . . . And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"He doesn't have to apologize for anything, you should be apologizing to him." Poseidon said.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. **

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought? **

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm sorry I interrupted your every important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

"I would have of loved to see the look on his face." Nico laughed along with the others.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his poker game.**

"**Thank you, Percy." My mom said. "Once we get Montauk we'll talk about . . . whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay."**

**For a moment-I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven layered bean dip. **

**An hour later we were ready to leave. **

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bag to the car. He kept gripping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro- for the whole weekend. **

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the lasted bag. "Not one little scratch." **

"Like he would be the one driving." Annabeth said.

**Like I'd be the one driving, I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made a hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of wading-off evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he had been shot from a canon.**

Everyone laughed, but the gods were surprised at how powerful the boy was.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident from the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it. **

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I love the place.**

**We'd be going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going here even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place she had meet my dad. **

Piper and Aphrodite squeal loudly, "That's so cute!" ****

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our casual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's with the blue food?" Jason asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice."

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberries smoothes. She brought blue-corn chips and brought home blue candies from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, instead of calling herself Mrs. Ugliano- was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents dies in a car crash. She told me she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk- my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Everyone nodded, he really did look like Poseidon.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could she you now, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wonder how she could say that. What was so great about me?**

"If only you knew Kelp Breath." Thalia whispered

**A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean . . . when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

"**But . . . he knew me as a baby."**

"**No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." **

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed so remember . . . something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. **

Poseidon did that same smile.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me . . . **

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smell Gabe.**

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. **

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think . . . I think we have enough to do something."**

"**Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mother's eyes welled p with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy. **

"I'm sorry, I didn't want it to sound like that." Sally apologized.

"It's okay, I understand now."

"**Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"**You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"**Safe from what?" **

**She meet my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During the third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When to the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believe me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, he only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and my teacher put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

Everyone turned to look at Hera, she rolled her eyes "I didn't do it."

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"**I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "That told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just . . . I just can't stand to do it."**

"**My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

"**Not a school," she said softly "A summer camp."**

The demigods cheered.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born-talk to talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"**I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

"**For good? But if it's only for summer camp . . ." **

**She turned toward the fore, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry. **

**That night I had a vivid dream. It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. **

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzled with its huge wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animal to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

"Ha, I beat you Poseidon!" Zeus cheered.

**I woke with a start. **

**Outside, it really was storming; the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island has never seen hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-something yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. Grover stood framed on the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't . . . he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What does he mean? Oh . . . what, I get it." Leo realized.

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but why he had come. **

"**Percy," she said shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" **

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. **

"_**O Zeu kai alloi theoi" **_**he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on and where his legs should be . . . where his legs should be. . . **

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "**_**Percy. **_**Tell me **_**now."**_

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashed of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disordered in his legs made sense to me. I understand how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. **

**Because where his feet should be, there was no there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

Percy put down the book, and everyone was silent.

Zeus stood up and declared "We gods will continue our meeting, and the rest of you can wander around Olympus."

Everyone nodded, and did what they were told to do.

_**Review, Favorite and Follow!**_

_**Reading is my Element**_


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